With summer vacation coming up, there are many opportunities for kids to go to camp, take lessons, play, and learn. But all of this can really add up in a financial sense. So it makes sense to try to help your kids have fun and keep busy without spending money every day on amusement parks or science centers.
Family activities: A family daycamp
One thing that makes it easier for daycamp leaders and managers to plan their activities and think of things to do is to have a theme to the week. One week, your theme could be:
Outer Space: give your kids some big boxes and have them build and decorate a rocket. Eat dried foods and drink Tang. Read books about Outer Space. Paint pictures of space. Make straw rockets.
Crazy Sports: go fly a kite. Make a frisbee golf course in the back yard, using a paper plate as a frisbee and laying down construction paper circles as the holes. Play follow the leader. Set up an obstacle course.
Rainy day fun: Imaginative play
You can encourage your child's creativity best by giving them basic material, and letting them use their imaginations or their own skills to create things. Why not build a puppet theatre: Hang a curtain rod (the kind that will fit in a doorway and are basically tension rods) in a doorway with some fabric hanging from it. Create a gap in the fabric by tying it to the doorway at midheight. Put a box about your child's height behind the curtain (to be the floor) and let your child create the puppets and the play from socks, popsicle sticks, markers, paper, and other craft materials around the house.
If your child likes to dress up, look around at garage sales or in thrift shops for interesting accessories. Put them all in a box and see what he or she can come up with.
Let work become play
After a while, eating at home can become boring. The siren call of fast food restaurants can be alluring for many children. Why not let them create their own restaurant and serve you lunch or dinner? Children can make menus, make basic food, set the table, and serve a nice meal. (I'm not certain how impressed my dad was with a menu that consisted of drawings of bugs and the words: Restaurant Menu. Spaghetti. Juice. Bread., but we had a great time. And we charged very reasonable prices, I'm sure).
Summer for children can seem all too short. Let them fill it with their own imaginations and it will fly by for you, too.
